Reports: Less being spent on public safety

San Diego  Government spending for public safety has declined across San Diego County in recent years, coinciding with reduced staffing and fewer arrests, according to two regional reports issued Wednesday.

As fiscal 2013 drew to a close on June 30, $1.78 billion had been spent on law enforcement, courts, jails, probation, prosecutors and public defenders, the San Diego Association of Governments reported.

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That figure was less than a 1 percent dip below the $1.79 billion spent in fiscal 2012, and 6 percent less than the $1.92 billion spent in fiscal 2008.

Many of the public safety agencies cut staff as a result of belt-tightening that began with the recession in 2008.

Police departments and the Sheriff’s Department combined saw a 5 percent decrease in the number of sworn officers over a five-year period, the report said.

“Due to budget challenges, local law enforcement agencies have had to rethink how to do their job effectively with limited resources,” Cynthia Burke, a research director for SANDAG, said in a statement.

“In many cases they are making strategic decisions to cut back in some areas in order to protect core patrol functions that are key to maintaining public safety.”

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Sheriff Bill Gore said Wednesday that since the recession, “everything has downsized, from libraries to law enforcement. You prioritize. I would bet law enforcement has taken smaller cuts than other departments.”

In fact, Gore said, his department’s budget has grown for three years, from $611 million in 2012 to $635 million in 2013 and $663 million for 2014.

Gore also hired more personnel in the past year, for a record staffing total of 4,200.

The SANDAG report said that regionally, there were 1.29 sworn officers per 1,000 population in 2013, the same as in 2012 but lower than the rate of 1.38 officers on the job in 2008.

The national average is 2.4 officer per 1,000 population, SANDAG said.

The arrest rate per 1,000 population also has declined over five years, by 21 percent, another SANDAG report said.

“It seems logical that if you have fewer cops on the street, you’ll have fewer arrests,” Gore said. “Hopefully, we’re doing smarter policing with less.”

Deputy Matt Clay, president of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, said that even though Gore has been hiring, the department loses recruits in the academy when they drop out or hire on with other agencies. Other losses come among corrections deputies who prefer better-paying law enforcement jobs, he said.